Buds Theatre's Death and Dancing in Joo Chiat

This is Buds Theatre Company's second staging of Death and Dancing by Claire Dowie.  An American gay student met a lesbian while studying there.  A relationship developed, and may possibly turn into a relationship.  And of course, one party backed out.  While this play explored theme that was beyond same sex relationship, it took some time to develop.  Some of the jokes were rather long and repetitive, and the second half was quite preachy.

Buds Theatre chose to stage this production at a space at Joo Chiat Road shophouse, partly to give an intimate setting, or to save on theatre rentals.  Director Claire Devine made good use of the venue where the audience were seated close to the actors. Rebecca Lee and Zuhairi Idris gave credible performance as Max, though putting on the foreign accents did strain our ears at times.  The 2-hour performance was also taxing to the performers during the second half of the show.

While I did not really enjoy the first act more for the script, I was more engaged in the second act. Script aside, Buds Theatre put up a good show in a simple setting and we felt the commitment of the 2 actors.  

Review of Tap Dogs at Mastercard Theatres: High Energy performance from the guys

It was a welcome return of Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs back in Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands MasterCards Theatre.  Taking a dance form in the era of Vaudeville and made it relevant to the modern day audience.

The performance started with a solo from Doug Mills and we were introduced to the rest of the dancers, or their feet I mean.  The first part of the performance was set in a neighbourhood, where a young man was trying to fit in with his friends, with a little help from an older pal.  This quieter duet moment between the two was one of my favourite scenes in this 90 minute performance.      The sequence involving the basketball was well choreographed and with good humour.

The Finger Players' Rant and Rave: Singapore theatre scene rewind and reflected

In Rant and Rave, playwright and director Chong Tze Chien searched through piles of newspaper archives and presented a survey of the Singapore theatre scene over the past few decades.  The script was based on the words of arts personalities such as Robert Yeo, Kuo Pao Kun, Margaret Chan, T Sasitharan, Ong Keng Sen, Alvin Tan and representatives from the media and also the government.  It touched on the challenges faced by our artists through the ages, ranging from the search for a national identity and a local play, the issue of censorship, and of course government funding.

All these roles were played by 2 capable actors Karen Tan and Janice Koh, who switched swiftly from one personality to another with simple use of props or costumes.  In addition to the action on stage, there were comments and quotes from more arts personalities, at times making the audience difficult to focus on either.

Singapore Repertory Theatre's Merchant of Venice: Shylock with a Bollywood Twist

The popular Shakespeare in the Park organised by the Singapore Repertory Theatre is back for another year.  Audience arriving at the Fort Canning Park was greeted with the beautiful Venetian building set designed by Richard Kent.  It was my first time seeing Merchant of Venice live on stage and the production did not disappoint.

Remesh Panicker was convincing as the moneylender Shylock but I was wondering why he portrayed the character with an Indian accent.  We have sympathies for Daniel Jenkins' Merchant of Venice Antonio.  These 2 actors were the star of this production.  The production moved at a good pace and I liked the lighting design and also the clear sound system.

While there was no surprises in this staging,  everything worked as a whole. A usual high standard SRT production.

Le Noir 2014 returns with new acts

Le Noir, a theatrical production featuring astonishing cirque-style acts, is returning with new, daring performances from 7 June 2014 at The MasterCard Theatres at the Marina Bay Sands.  I caught the performance last year and while I am not a big fan of acrobatic arts, this production was impressive and was one of my favourite shows of 2013 (Le Noir 2013)

From the publicity materials, several new acts have been added to LE NOIR 2014including The Wheel of Death  — one of the world's most complex circus stunts that will have audiences on the edge of their seats. The act features two acrobats who perform high-risk feats atop and inside a pair of spinning wheels rotating high above the stage.

The Grand Theatre will be fully transformed to seat audiences around a custom-built circular stage of about 2.5 meters in diameter giving a spectacular 360 degree view of the performance.  Audiences will be ‘enclosed’ within a canopy of curtains designed from LED lights.  The seating in the Grand Theatre will be limited to just over 1,300 seats to create a unique and intimate experience.  Led by Creative Producer Simon Painter and Executive Producer Tim Lawson, the creative team behind LE NOIRhas launched many large-scale productions including Le Grand Cirque Adrenaline, which is the biggest and most ambitious thrill circus ever staged in the Sydney Opera House.

TICKET PRICE:    From $70* (Excludes the booking fee of SGD$3 per ticket)
BOOKINGS: 
THROUGH INTERNET:www.BASEentertainmentasia.com,  www.MarinaBaySands.com

Review: Grease the Musical at the Marina Bay Sands Mastercard Theatre

It is inevitable for the audience to compare the movie version with the musical.  Thankfully the production team and the Australian cast of Grease, currently playing at Marina Bay Sands Mastercard Theatres, managed to hold its own. The story of teenage romance set in a high school would not make a great plot, but it is the classic songs such as the title track, "Summer Nights", "Hopelessly Devoted to You", "Sandy", "Beauty School Dropout" and "You're The One That I Want" that helped string the show together.

Stephen Mahy played the lead role Danny Zuko with a hint of goofiness, unlike the John Travolta version. Gretel Scarlett was convincing as the Sandy.  Both of them were supported by a good ensemble cast, which at times overshadowed their performances.

The production is generally slick and was more exciting during the second half.  More importantly, this production is about the songs we are familiar with, and it is about having a good time at the theatre.   Based on the reaction on a Tuesday evening, the performance delivered on both counts.

A Tale of 2 Sun Yat Sen Memorial Halls

It was Good Friday and a group of us decided to visit the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.  A few of my friends had never visited this place before and I wanted to  visit this refurbished building.  

The colonial style building and the statue of Dr Sun Yat Sen greeted us when we entered the compound. Sun Yat Sen played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, and was the first president and founding father of the Republic of China. 

From Left: Teo Eng Hock, Sun Yat Sen, Tan Chor Nam

From the National Library’s resouces, the villa was built sometime in the 1880s by Chinese merchant Boey Chuan Poh, rumoured for his mistress Bin Chan.  The villa chaged hands and eventually Teochew businessman Teo Eng Hock acquired the house and renamed it Wan Qing Yuan (晚晴园.  Teo Eng Hock later offered Sun Yat Sen the use of the villa. 

In 1906, during Sun's two-week stay in Singapore, he formed a local branch of the T'ung Meng Hui (“Chinese Revolutionary League”) with co-founders Tan Chor Nam as chairman, and Hsu Tzu Lin, Teo Eng Hock and his nephew Lim Nee Soon as office bearers. 

Singapore Arts Scene 2013: A Review

This year-end review is rather late, but better late than never.  It seems to me that the arts scene in Singapore was quieter, not just due to the one-year break of the Singapore Arts Festival, but the number of new works being premiered.

For theatre, it seemed to be a year of re-runs and restaging.  Having said that, here are the shows that I have enjoyed or felt offered something different.

12 Angry Men by Nine Years Theatre, at the Huayi Festival.  What was significant about this production was how director Nelson Chia had managed to get 12 mandarin speaking male actors for this show.  From the audience feedback session, one of the actors Johnny Ng helped brush up the delivery of lines of the other actors.  Johnny Ng won the Best Supporting Actor award at the recent Life! Theatre Award 2014 and whole cast won the Best Ensemble.  Director Nelson Chia won Best Director and Wong Chee Wai received the Best Set Design award. It is good to see that in addition to The Theatre Practice and Drama Box, we have another up and coming Chinese theatre group in Singapore.

Illogic by Cake Theatrical Productions. A very different and stripped down Cake production, where the characters were generally "normal".  The 2 actors Noorlinah Mohamed and Edith Podesta held the attention of the audience.  Edith Podesta won the Best Actress Award at the recent Life! Theatre Award, though I prefer Noorlinah's performance.  The production design was also of high standard.

If There Are Seasons (天冷就回来): Three Seasons of Good Music

Third staging by The Theatre Practice, and third time viewing.  The main attraction of this production would be the songs of Liang Wern Fook, a popular figure of the Xinyao movement (Singapore-penned Mandarin songs) in the 1980s / 90s.  The story was framed around the songs written by Hong Kong playwright Raymond Toh.   After the death of his girlfriend Xiao Jing, Ah Leleft for the Big Apple to pursue his love of music.  While in New York, he became friends with fellow countrymen residing there, including aspiring actress Rose.

In its third staging, The Theatre Practice did not do major changes to the script, which I found was the weak link of this production.  The struggles of the main characters were not dealt in depth, in particular Ah Le. It thus made his return to Singapore more like a loser rather than a person who had put in effort. At times, the storyline was created more to fit in the songs rather than necessity, in particular the scenes featuring the children.

A memorable Bach's St John Passion by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Decided to attend this SSO performance on 4 April at the Esplanade Concert Hall as I had not listened to this piece before and since this was a big work, why not?   One of the 2 surviving Passions composed by Bach which was performed on Good Friday in 1724 (290 years ago).

Conductor Lim Yau led the chorus well, which included the Singapore Symphony Chorus, Hallelujah Chorus and the NAFA Chamber Choir.  The choir was supported by a scaled down orchestra.  I enjoyed the male soloists more: Steve Davislim (tenor) as Evangelist, Martin Snell as Pilate and Jan-Hendrik Rootering as Christus - partly they had the more "meaty" singing roles.  The other soloists were Nadine Lehner and Lucia Cervoni.

The close to 2 hours performance (without intermission) may seem long initially, but I did not feel the length of the duration.  A good evening out.